Numbers 26:23

Summary

The verse lists the descendants of Issachar organized by clan, naming two eponymous ancestors: Tola, whose descendants form the clan of the Tolaites, and Puah, whose descendants form the clan of the Punites.

Key words

• benei ("descendants of", H1121G) — masculine plural construct, introducing the genealogical list as "sons/descendants of X."
• mishpechotam ("their clans", H4940 + H9028) — feminine plural noun with 3rd person masculine plural suffix, marking the organizing unit ("clans") as belonging to the sons of Issachar collectively.
• Tola ("Tola", H8439G) — proper name, the eponymous ancestor from whom the first clan derives its name.
• ha-Tola'i ("the Tolaite", H8440 + H9009) — gentilic noun with definite article, denoting the clan-group descended from Tola as a defined collective.
• ha-Puni ("the Punite", H6324 + H9009) — gentilic noun with definite article, parallel to ha-Tola'i, naming the second clan-group descended from Puah.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence follows a fixed genealogical formula used throughout Numbers 26: a construct chain (benei Yissakhar le-mishpechotam, "sons of Issachar according to their clans") introduces the list, followed by paired units of [personal name] + [construct form of mishpachat, "clan of"] + [gentilic with definite article]. Each pair names an ancestor and then designates the collective group descended from him using a gentilic noun — a grammatical form that turns a personal name into an adjective-like designation for the whole clan (e.g., Tola → "the Tolaite," referring not to one person but to the entire clan-group). The repetition of mishpachat ("clan of", H4940) before each gentilic reinforces that the text is enumerating administrative/tribal subdivisions rather than simple father-son relationships. The construct suffix on mishpechotam ("their clans") ties the entire list back to the introductory phrase, framing Tola and Puah as the two branch-heads under which Issachar's descendants are grouped.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate (Filii Issachar per cognationes suas: Thola... Phua...) and RV1909/BSB/SBLIBRE translations follow the Hebrew structure closely, rendering the construct chain and gentilics as expected genealogical clauses. The LXXSWETE text supplied here, however, does not correspond to Numbers 26:23 in content — it reads "these are the clans of Zebulun, according to their numbering, sixty thousand five hundred," which reflects a different verse from a different tribal section (Zebulun's census summary) rather than the Issachar genealogy described in the Hebrew.